Monday, March 23, 2009

Dentist

On this trip we had a dentist (Dr. Bob) & his wife, Charlette, agree to go and work on the girls teeth. Other than Guerline who had a fall last summer and had to have some teeth pulled and stitches, none of the girls had ever had any work done on their teeth before. Dr. Bob did fillings and pulled teeth throughout the week and Paige Leslie cleaned teeth for hours during the week. The amount of people the worked on for hours during the day still amazes me. Odette went to the dentist for the first time on Monday afternoon before our walk to her house. I was nervous about this because I'm still the mom who turns away and cries every time one of my girls gets a shot. Odette did great though on Monday. She didn't cry at all when he gave her the shot to numb her and just laid still and didn't move or cry when he drilled and filled 4 teeth on the right side of her mouth. They kept bragging on how well she was doing and I was very pleased that it went that well. When she was finished she got up and gave Dr. Bob a hug and told him "mesi" (thank you). He got a little teary and said he doesn't get that very often as a dentist. So other than feeling funny from being numb for a while after she did great.
On Tuesday Paige cleaned her teeth and she was great for that too & Paige also got a hug and a thank-you.
Later that afternoon her face started swelling some on the right side and she had some pain from her fillings but some Tylenol and an ice pack later she was doing better.

Wednesday on the other hand was a much different story. She went in with no fussing, did fine during the shot but started screaming when he stared drilling on the left side teeth. He would stop and we would ask her what was wrong but she was so upset that it was hard to understand her. I reminded him how well she did the other day and he decided to numb her more. Even after the second shot she was still screaming every time he would drill. She was staring at me with the most scared look in her eyes and I felt completely helpless. It was the first time the language barrier was such an issue because I couldn't even tell her that she would be ok. I was trying hard not to cry because she was looking straight into my eyes for reassurance. I would look away and try to compose myself. What I longed to do was to step outside have a good ugly cry and come back in but I knew that I couldn't leave her. Dr. Bob gave her another shot and told me to go out with her a little while and we would try it again later. This was the other moment that I really longed for Andy to be there because it was SO hard. When we went back for the third try it did not go much better. Kevin was talking to her throughout and Estimine was practically laying across her talking to her and reassuring her in Creole. I don't know what I would have done without those two there. I look over at the doorway and there stands Pastor Gaspard watching Odette with the most concerned look on his face as she screamed and cried in pain. Then he looks over at me & notices how upset I am and he comes over and stands there & pats my back. It was so sweet but made the tears come more. This was one of those times when I realized how much the Gaspards love the girls and care for them when we are not there.
When she was finally finished she asked for the ipod and went off in the dining room by herself. I think she was mad at me and needed to be alone which gave me a chance to go off by myself too.

On Friday Odette started complaining about her back tooth hurting. We went to Dr. Bob and was really hoping that the problem was the sore where she bit her cheek and not the tooth but after asking her she said it was her tooth. That left no option at this point but to pull the tooth that he had already filled. He said the good thing is that it is a 6 yr. molar and the 12 year molar will just move into it's place when she gets her 12 year molars. The bad news was we had to go through the numbing part again. It took a couple of times and about 30 minutes for her to be completely numb but it finally worked and luckily having a tooth pulled (the tooth was HUGE) was a pretty quick procedure. I am just thankful that that experience is over, 8 filling, many shots and a pulled tooth later. I am glad that I was there with her and am also thankful for the thousand or more dollars that Dr. Bob saved us when we get her here.

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